Martha Stewart denied visa to travel to Britain

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart has
been denied entry to Britain because of her 2004 U.S.
conviction for lying about a stock sale.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc, the company founded by
Stewart, said the 66-year-old businesswoman had been planning
to travel to Britain for business meetings.

"She has engagements with English companies and business
leaders and hopes this can be resolved so that she will be able
to visit soon," Charles Koppelman, chairman of Martha Stewart
Living Omnimedia, said in a statement.

A spokesman for Britain's Home Office, which runs the UK
Border Agency, said it does not comment on individual cases.

"We continue to oppose the entry to the UK of individuals
where we believe their presence in the United Kingdom is not
conducive to the public good or where they have been found
guilty of serious criminal offenses abroad," he said.

Stewart was found guilty of conspiracy, making false
statements and obstruction of agency proceedings -- all
stemming from her sale of stock in biotech company ImClone
Systems Inc. on December 27, 2001. She was sentenced to five
months in prison and five months of house arrest.